PHS LIBRARY DATABASES: Link to Databases is on the left-hand side of the page. The Literature Resource Center is a good one (password: parkland), and ProQuest Learning Literature is a good resource as well.
--Analysis: What It Is and What It Does (note: all of the following is taken from Writing Analytically by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen)--incidentally, this is the most useful book on writing and how to improve your writing that I've ever read.
--Analysis is the "search for meaningful pattern. It asks how something does what it does or why it is as it is" (Rosenwasser and Stephen 53).
--"[Analysis] is the skill most commonly called for in college courses and beyond. When asked in faculty writing seminars to talk about what they want from student writing, faculty say that they want students to be able to arrive at ideas about information, rather than merely report it (neutral summary) or try to match information with personal experience" (53-54).
---There are "five analytical moves" that represent the frame of mind for approaching analysis: #1: Suspend judgment (understand before you judge what something means). #2: Define significant parts and how they are related.
----to practice this, begin by describing something you wish to better understand. "Say what is there, what details you notice in your subject. Then write a paragraph in which you say what the description revealed to you about the nature of the subject" (56). Ex. (a writer's analysis of another author's speech) "I am not the wise old fish" (1). "Please don't worry that I am getting ready to lecture you..." (2). "Please don't think that I am giving you moral advice" (5). A recurrent feature of the address is the author's imploring his audience ("Please") not to assume that he is offering moral instruction. The sheer repetition of this pattern suggests that he is worried about sounding like a sermonizer, that the writer is anxious about the didacticism of his speech. But obviously the piece does advance a moral position; it does want us to think about something serious, which is part of its function as a commencement address. What's most interesting is the final apology, offered just as the piece ends (7). Here Wallace appears to shift ground. Rather than denying that he's "the wise old fish" (1), he denies that...
#3: Look for patterns of repetition (strands) and contrast (binaries) and for anomalies (things that don't fit in either strands or binaries).
Ask:
--What repeats?
--What goes with what? (strands)
--What is opposed to what? (binaries)
(for all of these questions) ---> SO WHAT?
--What doesn't fit? (anomalies) So what?
#4: Make the implicit explicit (convert to direct statement meanings that are only suggested--make details "speak").
Implication: An Example Imagine you are driving down the highway and find yourself analyzing a billboard advertisement for a brand of beer. Such an analysis might begin with your noticing what the billboard photo contains, its various "parts"--six young, athletic, and scantily clad men and women drinking beer while pushing kayaks into a fast-running river. At this point, you have produced not an analysis but a summary--a description of what the photo contains. If, however, you go on to consider what the particulars of the photo imply, your summary would become analytical. You might infer, for example, that the photo implies that beer is the beverage of fashionable, healthy, active people. Your analysis would lead you to convert to direct statement meanings that are suggested but not overtly stated, such as the advertisement's goal of attacking common stereotypes about its product (that only lazy, overweight men drink beer). By making the implicit explicit (inferring what the ad implies) you can better understand the nature of your subject.
#5: Keep reformulating questions and explanations (what other details seem significant? what else might they mean?).
"The following questions are typical of what goes on in an analytical writer's head as he or she attempts to understand a subject...the questions are geared toward helping you locate and try on explanations for the meaning of various patterns of details." -Which details seem significant? Why? -What does the detail mean? -What else might it mean?
(Moves: Define Significant Parts; Make the Implicit Explicit)
How do the details fit together? What do they have in common? What does this pattern of details mean? What else might this same pattern of details mean? How else could it be explained?
(Move: Look for Patterns)
What details don't seem to fit? How might they be connected with other details to form a different pattern? What does this new pattern mean? How might it cause me to read the meaning of individual details differently?
(Moves: Look for Anomalies and Keep Asking Questions) Notice and Focus and The Method are strategies for finding evidence. Pan/Track/Zoom is a strategy for analyzing and producing content from this evidence:
Grammar and Writing ResourcesGRAMMAR.CCC: One of the best and most comprehensive online grammar resources on the web.
PURDUE'S OWL: guide to MLA, APA, and other research writing skills.
UNC's Writing Page
Elements of STYLE
Dr. Grammar
ESSAY EDGE: an excellent resource to guide you through college app essays, step by step.
TURNITIN.COM: If I've spoken to you in class about it, use it. Use it to communicate with classmates and with me, not just to submit essays.
PHS LIBRARY DATABASES: Link to Databases is on the left-hand side of the page. The Literature Resource Center is a good one (password: parkland), and ProQuest Learning Literature is a good resource as well.
--Analysis: What It Is and What It Does
(note: all of the following is taken from Writing Analytically by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen)--incidentally, this is the most useful book on writing and how to improve your writing that I've ever read.
--Analysis is the "search for meaningful pattern. It asks how something does what it does or why it is as it is" (Rosenwasser and Stephen 53).
--"[Analysis] is the skill most commonly called for in college courses and beyond. When asked in faculty writing seminars to talk about what they want from student writing, faculty say that they want students to be able to arrive at ideas about information, rather than merely report it (neutral summary) or try to match information with personal experience" (53-54).
---There are "five analytical moves" that represent the frame of mind for approaching analysis:
#1: Suspend judgment (understand before you judge what something means).
#2: Define significant parts and how they are related.
----to practice this, begin by describing something you wish to better understand. "Say what is there, what details you notice in your subject. Then write a paragraph in which you say what the description revealed to you about the nature of the subject" (56).
Ex. (a writer's analysis of another author's speech)
"I am not the wise old fish" (1). "Please don't worry that I am getting ready to lecture you..." (2). "Please don't think that I am giving you moral advice" (5).
A recurrent feature of the address is the author's imploring his audience ("Please") not to assume that he is offering moral instruction. The sheer repetition of this pattern suggests that he is worried about sounding like a sermonizer, that the writer is anxious about the didacticism of his speech.
But obviously the piece does advance a moral position; it does want us to think about something serious, which is part of its function as a commencement address. What's most interesting is the final apology, offered just as the piece ends (7). Here Wallace appears to shift ground. Rather than denying that he's "the wise old fish" (1), he denies that...
#3: Look for patterns of repetition (strands) and contrast (binaries) and for anomalies (things that don't fit in either strands or binaries).
Ask:
--What repeats?
--What goes with what? (strands)
--What is opposed to what? (binaries)
(for all of these questions) ---> SO WHAT?
--What doesn't fit? (anomalies) So what?
#4: Make the implicit explicit (convert to direct statement meanings that are only suggested--make details "speak").
Implication: An Example
Imagine you are driving down the highway and find yourself analyzing a billboard advertisement for a brand of beer. Such an analysis might begin with your noticing what the billboard photo contains, its various "parts"--six young, athletic, and scantily clad men and women drinking beer while pushing kayaks into a fast-running river. At this point, you have produced not an analysis but a summary--a description of what the photo contains. If, however, you go on to consider what the particulars of the photo imply, your summary would become analytical.
You might infer, for example, that the photo implies that beer is the beverage of fashionable, healthy, active people. Your analysis would lead you to convert to direct statement meanings that are suggested but not overtly stated, such as the advertisement's goal of attacking common stereotypes about its product (that only lazy, overweight men drink beer). By making the implicit explicit (inferring what the ad implies) you can better understand the nature of your subject.
#5: Keep reformulating questions and explanations (what other details seem significant? what else might they mean?).
"The following questions are typical of what goes on in an analytical writer's head as he or she attempts to understand a subject...the questions are geared toward helping you locate and try on explanations for the meaning of various patterns of details."
-Which details seem significant? Why?
-What does the detail mean?
-What else might it mean?
(Moves: Define Significant Parts; Make the Implicit Explicit)
How do the details fit together? What do they have in common?
What does this pattern of details mean?
What else might this same pattern of details mean? How else could it be explained?
(Move: Look for Patterns)
What details don't seem to fit? How might they be connected with other details to form a different pattern?
What does this new pattern mean? How might it cause me to read the meaning of individual details differently?
(Moves: Look for Anomalies and Keep Asking Questions)
Notice and Focus and The Method are strategies for finding evidence.
Pan/Track/Zoom is a strategy for analyzing and producing content from this evidence: